Happy New Year and Happy 50th Anniversary!

This year NEPPA will engage in various activities to acknowledge our 50th Anniversary. There will be activities aimed at reminiscing and others aimed at pure celebration.

Communication activities will be a large part of the year of recognition, both publications and web. We are kicking things off in this issue of e-Newsline. Today, we begin a 12-part series of interviews with folks who helped make NEPPA what we are. These are individuals who were leaders or affiliates and others who charted NEPPA’s path. This month we start the series off with Curt Lanciani, the former General Manager of Littleton Electric Light and Water Departments. Curt was instrumental in the formation of NEPPA and I believe you will truly enjoy and learn from his thoughts. I learned that NEPPA’s purpose for formation was not what I thought it was. I will review the purpose at the end of this article.

If you have suggestions for people who should be interviewed, please contact Courtney in our offices. In addition to publishing these interviews, we will also poll all of you each month on the most significant occurrences and events of the past 50 years. We will publish the results each month in the form of top ten lists on the NEPPA website. We are currently vetting our archives for stories from e-Newsline and its predecessor, Power Lines. We will publish and distribute this commemorative piece to all members. There are further communications efforts and you can contact Courtney to find out more.

Additionally, we plan to have historical equipment and informational displays at all of the meetings and events this year. We will also have commemorative gifts.

All of these activities require the same crucial ingredient that it took to get here: you. A community was needed to make it to 50 years and it will take the participation of all of you to accurately reflect our history and celebrate it. These anniversaries always have bitter-sweet elements; we are family and sometimes we argue and sometimes we laugh. Reflecting on these moments requires participation.

If you are interested in assisting we are looking for:

People to review pre-weeded stories from Power Lines and e-Newsline;
Historical photos;
Equipment that changed or impacted the industry or that demonstrates how far we have come;
Responses to our poll questions;
Sponsors and advertisers.

Because there is great interest in being part of NEPPA’s celebration and limited opportunities in our communications and events, we have made it possible for members to purchase their promotional packages at the beginning of the year. This allows you to budget for the entire year and ensure that you are not left out of key moments when you want your presence felt. If you are a traditional advertiser or sponsor or considering it for the first time, please click here to get more information. Because it is our 50th anniversary and so many want to participate, it is strongly suggested that you sign up early. Special opportunities such as advertisements, thank yous, or shout outs in our commemorative Power Lines are also available.

Often milestones like this are times to reflect and for me an opportunity to become better acquainted with the history of NEPPA. This past month when assisting Courtney Crouse in her interview of Curt Lanciani I was corrected for an assumption I made in last month’s column. During his interview Mr. Lanciani revealed that the original group of roughly six Massachusetts public electric utilities created NEPPA for the purpose of dealing with power supply issues! We have come a long way since then including when our fledgling organization made the decision to drive the creation of MMWEC.

While our mission and offerings have changed, the growth and purpose of service to public power has not wavered. We continue even after 50 years to deliver essential services through our education, communication, mutual assistance and governmental representation of our members.